Wednesday, January 2, 2013

satsuma mandarin sorbet

Do you not love to see stacks of Satsuma Mandarin Orange boxes in your grocery store? They seem to start to show up sometime after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. Or maybe it's closer to Christmas. Either way, whenever they do show up, it is one of the signals of the holidays for me. Growing up, each mandarin was wrapped in dark orange paper and there were always a few in our Christmas stockings.

This year, after eating our way through a few boxes, I decided to try something new. The flavor from this citrus is so stunning and I was curious about how it would turn out if made into sorbet. The answer? lovely. It is a more subtle citrus perfume than other fruit I have made into sorbet but so welcomed after a month of chocolate, butter and spice.

I was also inspired to make this because of my husbands love for the flavor of creamsicles- orange and vanilla. If you like that sort of thing too, there are two ways you can accomplish it: serve a scoop of very good vanilla ice cream alongside a couple scoops of sorbet (my husbands preference) or dollop with fresh whipped cream (my preference.)

1) Make the simple syrup- Place the water in a saucepan, stir in the sugar and boil until dissolved. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool. Congratulations- you have now made simple syrup! (equal parts water and sugar, it is used in all kinds of desserts and cocktails)

2) Juice the mandarins- peel the mandarins into segments. Place segments in the bowl of food processor and puree until smooth. Set a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour the puree into the sieve. This is to separate out the pulp. To extract the most juice possible, I also found it helpful to smoosh the pulp around in the sieve with a spoon. Depending on the size of your food processor, it may take a couple of batches to puree enough mandarins to have the right amount of juice.

3) Pour the mandarin juice in a separate bowl. Once the simple syrup is cooled, add about half the simple syrup to the mandarin juice and taste. If not sweet enough, add more syrup. Transfer this mixture to the fridge and let it chill completely.

4) Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions. Transfer the sorbet mixture to a freezer safe container and freeze for at least a few hours to firm up.